Cops Corner: Pelican Press

Aug. 17
CROSSWALK QUAGMIRE
2:25 p.m. — 5100 block of Ocean Boulevard. Disturbance. Two women, a bicyclist and a motorist, began arguing because the driver pulled her vehicle over a crosswalk while waiting to turn. The cyclist blocked the vehicle, delivered “a tongue lashing” to the driver and dared the woman to hit her. The cyclist told deputies the woman obliged, but police declared that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the cyclist had been struck.

LOVE SPAT
11:59 p.m. — 500 block of Canal Street. Battery. A woman reported that her neighbor had assaulted his roommate during a drunken brawl. When police contacted the two men, they said the altercation might have been about a woman who slept with one of the men, then began flirting with the other.

Aug. 18
BEAT THEM TO THE PUNCH
8:13 p.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Disorderly Intoxication. Employees escorted a man out of a bar after he began swearing at bar staff for refusing him service. Deputies handcuffed the man, who had started kicking the employees, but told him he was free to go when his sister arrived to take him home. When an officer began undoing the restraints, the man said he would beat the deputy up when the handcuffs were removed. He was then taken to jail.

Aug. 20
ALWAYS RECYCLE
12:04 a.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Impaired person. Deputies discovered a man sleeping near some empty beer cans. An officer woke him up and asked him to pick up the cans, but the man nearly fell down two times. Police transported him to a substance abuse clinic.

SHINY USED BIKE
5:12 p.m. — 5500 block of Avenida Del Mare. Found Property. A woman found a silver bicycle in a shrubbery in front of her home. Deputies said she could keep the bike if it remains unclaimed for 90 days.

Aug. 21
CALL ME, MAYBE
12:08 a.m. — 5400 block of Ocean Boulevard. Abandoned 911 Call. Deputies received several 911 calls with static and faint voices from a condominium complex. Upon investigation, officers found that an emergency call box on the property’s pool deck was malfunctioning.

RECOVERY MODE
3:23 p.m. — 1300 block of North Portofino Drive. Identity Theft. A man reported that a bank account was opened under his father-in-law’s name. He suspects someone obtained the 86-year-old’s Social Security number and used it to fraudulently attain a debit card.

Aug. 22
GRAN TORINO
12:37 p.m. — 5300 block of Las Rosas Street. Petit Theft. A man reported that his neighborhood “is not what it used to be” due to foreclosures, which caused property owners to rent for short spurts to “hooligans.” He said someone trimmed a tree in his yard and left the clippings on his porch and displaced two solar panels near his mailbox. He said a small flag was taken from his mailbox. He wanted to file a report so he does not get into trouble when he catches the culprit.

FORGETFUL OFFENDER
11:06 p.m. — 5200 block of Ocean Boulevard. Driving Under the Influence. Two men called police after they followed a hit-and-run suspect to a public beach access, where officers found a woman sitting in her driver’s seat. She told an officer she didn’t remember backing into a car and that there was no damage to her vehicle. The woman was unsteady on her feet and slurring her speech when the deputy told her there was, indeed, damage to her car.